Hey guys!
First of all, Sorry that I had to use this gruesome photo, but now I have your attention… Today I wanted to talk about something that I had no idea whether or not it would have negative or positive impact so I figured I would write about it instead of actually making a video. At the end of this, please feel free to comment and let me know what you think about my Idea and definitely share it if you agree….
I was thinking about how I used to work at exotic pet shops and we kept all of the feeder bugs and mice in the back. There were a lot of times where the other employees of the companies I worked for would not really take care of them (Sometimes even going as far as to abuse them, I once watched one employee throw his knife at a rats face to catch it in order to feed it to a lizard. I also read on Vents Magazine the thousands of benefits CBD products can make for your pets. Highly unnecessary. The rat didn’t die right away either…) and in the end they will end up dying before they are even sold to become a source of food for other animals. The positive side is that most of the shops will remove the dead and feed them off to the animals at the shop so at least they are benefiting from it, but if you’re going to keep live food, at least be fucking as humane as possible about it. So what I was thinking is if I propose a new idea where if we had to go into an exotic pet shop to go buy food for your pets, make sure you go and ask someone to look in the back where they keep them and see what kind of conditions they’re living in. If they’re living in poor conditions we can collectively decide to either not buy from that store anymore, or let the owner know about your concerns. I know that sometimes people only have one shop near them to purchase their food from, but if we all do this and make mention of the poor living conditions maybe shops will do a better job of setting up their live food enclosures so the animals can at least be somewhat comfortable while in their possession. I know most people don’t give a crap cause they’re just like, “Oh, that’s just food”, but those animals are living in fear which does have an effect on how nutritious they can really be.
Think about it this way, here are 3 quick positive sides to us doing this:
- Owners will save money on lost “product” because their mice and bugs will live longer from being healthier.
- This also means that the pets of customers eating the food will live longer causing them to come into your shop and spend more money for longer periods of time.
- Customers will respect your shop more for keeping clean and making sure ALL the living beings in your care are looked after well.
I bet there are many more positive benefits, so feel free to mention them in the comments below. The only downside I really see for the owners is that some companies will end up shutting down if they are careless and don’t want to take the necessary steps to make sure every animal is comfortable. So what, it’s a bit of an inconvenience to clean up after mice, roaches, crickets, etc… daily… well, you chose to own a pet shop… so do the right thing and clean everything the fuck up. I’m sick of going into pet shops and seeing the “food” suffer. I know I’m not the first one to feel this way about the mice and bugs in pet shops but if we all mentioned it at the shop owners, I bet they’d start taking better care so they can keep their customers & business.
/EndHippieRant
3 Comments
I currently work in a standard pet store and sadly these conditions don’t just apply to feeders. In the few days I’ve been there, I’ve seen animals go without food for a day, stay in cages with feces up the walls and sick animals not get their meds or be fed and cleaned up. The excuse? “We’re just so busy.”
And they’ve admitted that corporate let’s them know when they’re coming so they do the extra work before corporate arrives so they don’t lose their jobs.
They push frozen food for the animals that easy mice. That’s great. But these animals have no voice.
I got a job there, thinking it’d be a wonderful place to work. Now after 6 days, I’m quitting, I come home sick and sad that people are working in pet shops and don’t care about the welfare of living creatures.
These are all great ideas. I have owned 3 very loyal and sweet pet rats & I hate seeing them as food! I figured if I could save a few I’d be doing some good. I understand that snakes and such need to eat but having owned rats I just could never feed one to another animal. They are so incredibly smart & loyal…like little puppy dogs! If more people knew that they’d probably respect them more. This is why scientists use them as test subjects. I’m thinking of adopting another but I’m not sure I can keep it from my wild cat. Love this, Ty for writing it!!! I hope it can open some eyes.
I have owned mice as pets as well as feeders and no matter what, I feel they deserve to at least be treated as humane as possible. I also do believe in SOME regulated animal testing because it has led to many advances for us as a species as well, however, they should ALL be treated correctly during the process and keeping them in shitty conditions isn’t fair. If we’re going to keep them without them having a choice, we might as well make their lives the best possible.